Former Australian opener Michael Slater has said that Shane Watson must make his starts count if he is to end the revolving door of Australia’s number 3 batting position, which has seen 10 players (Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Michael Clarke, Alex Doolan, Rob Quiney, Late Phillip Hughes, Glenn Maxwell, Ed Cowan, David Warner and Shane Watson) come and go since the beginning of Michael Clarke’s captaincy in 2011.
On the second day of the second Test against India at Gabba, Watson raced to 25 off 29 deliveries before gifting away his wicket to Indian off spinner R Ashwin when he danced down the pitch and struck him firmly straight to deep mid-on. This was the 35th time in Watson’s career that he posted a score between 20 and 50 and lost his wicket in an unfavourable manner.
During with interview with Cricket Australia, Slater was quoted in saying:
“It was just a loss of concentration. Slater said regarding Watson’s dismissal.
“I don’t know if he was trying to get it up over the top or whether he was trying to hit the gap. It was a bit of a nothing stroke, even though he hit it crisply. You’ve got to get it away from the fielders. He’s going to be really disappointed with that.
“He’s such a good striker of the ball that at times he can get a bit one-paced. And I thought what he was doing quite nicely today was working the singles.
“There was a bit of subtlety to his game, which I think he can keep introducing and it would make him a better player. That’s a big miss, really, because he got himself going. He was 20-odd and he looked fantastic.”
But Slater still has no doubt that Watson is a high-impact player and one or two good and big innings would bring him back to business.
“He’s a quality player, but I think he’s got to show at No.3 that he can get that big score soon. That’s just a fact of life that when you’re in this position – you’ve got to perform.
“You can’t do it every time but you’ve got to be able to convert starts and at least start to trouble the scorers more often than not. I think he needs to do that soon to remind everyone of the quality player that he is.
“I don’t think he’s lost anything. He did bowl nicely, his catching was great and he has a good all-round ability.
“He’s not getting any younger, but at the same time but I think he should be able to cement this No.3 position,” Slater added.
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